Disclaimer: Everything you recognize is by J.K. Rowling.


11-The Polyjuice Potion

The double attack on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick turned what had hitherto been nervousness into real panic. Curiously, it was Nearly Headless Nick's fate that seemed to worry people most. What could possibly do that to a ghost? people asked each other; what terrible power could harm someone who was already dead? There was almost a stampede to book seats on the Hogwarts Express so that students could go home for Christmas.

"At this rate, we'll be the only ones left," Ron tells us. "Us, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. What a jolly holiday it's going to be." I couldn't help but agree with Ron. I didn't want to spend my holiday with just them either. At least we'd still have Ariana and my brother here with us as well.

Oh and how could I forget my favorite pair of redheaded twins? We had gotten together after Harry had gotten detained and taken to the Headmaster's office to come up with a prank that would shock the student population back into living. Unfortunately for us one redheaded prefect was keeping a close eye on the three of us.

I don't really want to have to go through an entire holiday with Percy again. He seems to be a fun leech whenever he's around everything just loses its entertainment. Fred and George have taken Harry's newfound notoriety and had fun with it. They go out of their way to march ahead of Harry down the corridors, shouting, "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through. . . ."

Percy is deeply disapproving of this behavior. "It is not a laughing matter," he says coldly.

"Oh, get out of the way, Percy," snaps Fred. "Harry's in a hurry."

"Yeah, he's off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with his fanged servant," replies George, chortling. Even though I thought that it wasn't a laughing matter it was still entertaining. Ginny didn't like the twins' jokes either. She'd always plead for them to stop. "Oh, don't," she wails every time Fred asks Harry loudly who he is planning to attack next, or when George pretends to ward Harry off with a large clove of garlic when they meet.

Harry of course is taking this whole Heir of Slytherin thing pretty easily. When I asked him about it he had only shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes at me. Harry didn't see the point in making such a big fuss about something that wasn't true. People were going to judge him no matter what his own opinion is on the matter.

One thing that was rather shocking though was that Malfoy seemed rather put out about all the attention that Harry was getting as a potential Slytherin heir. "It's like he's just bursting to admit that he's the heir." Ron exclaims giddily one morning on our walk to class.

I'm not sure how certain I am about that but we'll see in due time. "We won't need to wait much longer guys. The Polyjuice potion is almost ready." Hermione assures us. Harry lets out a sigh of relief.

"Good I'm tired of being falsely accused all the time. I'm starting to think that even Dumbledore doesn't believe in me as much as he used to." Harry states glumly referencing his meeting with the headmaster.


At last the term ended and a silence as deep as the snow on the ground descended on the castle. Harry, Ron, Hermione and I had the run of Gryffindor tower along with the rest of the Weasley clan. The school was pretty much empty besides that. People are all hiding out at home worried about the attacks that have been happening.

I for one don't blame them. You know that there's cause for worry when even ghosts can be petrified by whatever the heck's out there. Christmas dawned fast and early this year. I was excited for the fact that this time I could share the day with Hermione as well.

We both rose early and jammed out feet into our slippers so that we could gather up our gifts, and meet up with the boys. I again had a decent sized pile on my bed. When I pushed open the door to the boy's room though, Harry and Ron were both still soundly asleep, Ron snoring rather loudly. Hermione scoffed and rolled her eyes at the sight of them.

With a rather undignified huff, she stomps over to the window and throws the curtains back. "Wake up you two!" She cries. Harry winces, and Ron groans attempting to bury himself further under his covers.

"Merry Christmas! Come on guys Hermione has exciting news!" I squeal, dropping my gifts onto Harry's trunk. I clamber up onto his bed, and start jumping on it in excitement. Harry groans and shoves his glasses onto his nose.

"Jamie!" He cries exasperatedly, grabbing me by my arm and pulling me down next to him.

"Come on Harry it's Christmas!" I grin. Harry stares at me for a long second before he smiles in return. I throw my arms around him in a quick hug before handing him his presents.

"I've been up for a whole hour already and Jamie has been up for nearly half that time. I went and added the last of the lacewings to the potion. It's ready." Hermione informs everyone. Ron jerks up from his position underneath his pillow.

"Well blimey Hermione! Why didn't you start off with that?" Ron cries. Hermione shoots him a cross look but it quickly dissolves as the spirit of opening presents overcomes us.

"We should go tonight." Hermione adds as an afterthought as she tears open the wrappings on one of her countless books. This year Harry and Ron chipped in together and got me my very own basic wizarding chessboard and pieces. Hermione gave me yet another book on advanced charm work, and my brother Luka gave me a jumper with the phrase 'I laugh in the face of danger… literally'.

He must have been in one of his sarcastic moods that day. Kingsley sent me a broom servicing kit and Ariana Dumbledore surprised me by making me a stuffed kitten that looks surprisingly a lot like my drawing of the fire-breathing kitten of mine.

I grin and cast a charm on the plush, to animate it into action. The little white kitten stretches its legs and mews contentedly. Before I know it I have a small stuffed animal curled up in my lap and purring. I can't help but let out a happy laugh at that. This has been a great break from all the drama that has been swallowing the whole school up.

I'm not sure how much more of all this I can take. I might be a Gryffindor but that doesn't mean that I always like being on edge, especially since they're going to use the polyjuice potion tonight. I'm positive that the smarmy git of a weasel isn't the heir of Slytherin. There's just no way that Malfoy can be someone that important. The universe doesn't hate me that much!


No one, not even someone dreading taking Polyjuice Potion later, can fail to enjoy Christmas dinner at Hogwarts. The Great Hall looks magnificent. Not only are there a dozen frost-covered Christmas trees and thick streamers of holly and mistletoe crisscrossing the ceiling, but enchanted snow is falling, warm and dry, from the ceiling. Dumbledore leads us in a few of his favorite carols, Hagrid booming more and more loudly with every goblet of eggnog he consumes. Percy, who hasn't noticed that Fred has bewitched his prefect badge so that it now reads "Pinhead," keeps asking us all what we are sniggering at.

The twins and I had decided earlier on today that we were going to pull off our prank once everyone was back from the holidays and hopefully in good moods. I even manage to convince my brother to come sit with us at the Gryffindor table since he is the only student in the whole of Ravenclaw house to be remaining at school for the holiday.

The only thing that was slightly annoying was Malfoy bragging about all the gifts that he'd received for Christmas. Harry and Ron kept shooting glares at him, but both boys had a triumphant bordering on almost smug look about them, like they were sure that Malfoy was about to get caught.

I couldn't help but sigh and shake my head at that. When I had run into Ariana earlier I had thanked her for the plush kitten. She in turn blushed and mentioned that she loved her badger so much that she thought that I should have one as well this year.

Once the boys had gotten around to their third round of pudding Hermione was finally fed up enough, to drag them away to go and finalize our plan. I said goodnight to everyone and quickly followed behind my retreating friends. I felt slightly sad for Ginny sitting there all alone, but Ariana sat down next to her quickly, and engaged her in conversation.

"We still need a bit of the people you're changing into," says Hermione matter-of-factly, as though she is sending us to the supermarket for laundry detergent. "And obviously, it'll be best if you can get something of Crabbe's and Goyle's; they're Malfoy's best friends, he'll tell them anything. And we also need to make sure the real Crabbe and Goyle can't burst in on us while we're interrogating him.

"I've got it all worked out," she goes on smoothly, ignoring Harry's and Ron's stupefied expressions. I can't help but snicker at that. She holds up two plump chocolate cakes. "I've filled these with a simple Sleeping Draught. All you have to do is make sure Crabbe and Goyle find them. You know how greedy they are, they're bound to eat them. Once they're asleep, pull out a few of their hairs and hide them in a broom closet."

Harry and Ron look incredulously at each other. "Hermione, I don't think —" Ron starts.

"That could go seriously wrong —" Harry stammers. But Hermione has a steely glint in her eye not unlike the one Professor McGonagall sometimes has. It was enough to send shivers down my spine, and snaps the mouths closed on both the boys. Damn remind me to never get on her bad side, it could seriously be bed for my health, and I'm in the hospital wing enough as it is.

"The potion will be useless without Crabbe's and Goyle's hair," she says sternly. "You do want to investigate Malfoy, don't you?" Both Harry and Ron quickly nods their heads, but the disgusted look on their faces doesn't disappear. "Now Jamie…" Hermione starts turning her attention to me.

Quickly I back up holding my hands out. "I'm not doing it Hermione. I'll be look out or something, but there's no way that I'm being a part of this. I still don't think that's its him." I point out shaking my head violently in the negative. Hermione sighs and shoots me an exasperated look.

"I wasn't suggesting that you would. Besides there isn't a Slytherin girl here that you could possibly turn into. I got my hair off of the robes of Millicent Bulstrode when she was trying to strangle me at the dueling club." Hermione explains holding up a small glass vial with a few dark strands out hair in it.

I shiver just thinking about my friends turning into the Slytherins that hate our guts. Why couldn't this plan had involved something as simple as just throwing on the invisibility cloak and listening in on their conversations? Hermione went back into the stall to check on the potion while Harry and Ron went to get the hairs from dumb and dumber.

I leaned against the stall behind my friend and watched as she worked. "Hermione… I know that you're scared." I tell her. I watch as my friend stiffens for a second but then relaxes.

"Of course I am Jamie. I'm about to turn into a gorilla girl who tried to kill me a month ago. How would you feel?" She tells me. I heave a sigh and squeeze my eyes shut for a second, trying to gather my patience back up.

"I mean that you're scared about what's happening at school. Why else would you be breaking this many school rules making an illegal potion? This isn't you Hermione. Usually when Harry and Ron come up with hair brained ideas you're the one to burst their bubble." I explain to her.

"You forgot that you have some pretty reckless ideas yourself there Jamie." She says quietly. I chuckle softly and cross my arms over my chest.

"Yeah I can believe that… you know Hermione I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you. Neither are Ron and Harry. Whatever is causing this we'll stop it. I guarantee that." I tell her. My best friend turns around to look at me, and a watery smile breaks out on her face.

Hermione get's up and wraps me into a tight hug. "Oh Jamie, don't promise what you can't assure." She tells me quietly. With that she gives me a light peck on the cheek and turns back to her bubbling slob of a potion. Boy am I glad that I don't have to take that.


Fifteen minutes later Harry and Ron come hurrying back holding too large Slytherin robes and clothes in their hands, along with tufts of hair that I can only assume had once sprouted out of greasy Slytherin heads. For the eighth time in the matter of minutes I'm thankful for the fact that I will not have to participate in this round of disgusting and stupidly dangerous adventure work.

The four of us stare into the cauldron. Up close it looks like thick brown bubbling mud. Boy am I glade that I'm not going to be having to drink that! "I'm sure I've done everything right," says Hermione, nervously rereading the splotched page of Moste Potente Potions. "It looks like the book says it should . . . once we've drunk it, we'll have exactly an hour before we change back into ourselves."

"Now what?" Ron whispers an unflattering shade of green.

"We separate it into three glasses and add the hairs." Hermione instructs not exactly looking so great herself. Hermione ladles large dollops of the potion into each of the glasses. Then, her hand trembling, she shakes Millicent Bulstrode's hair out of its bottle into the first glass.

The potion hisses loudly like a boiling kettle and froths madly. A second later, it turns a sick sort of yellow. "Merlin essence of Millicent Bulstrode… I bet you that you throw up at least once taking that." I say eyeing the potion warily. Hermione glares at me, but the sickened look on her face takes away some of the sting.

Hermione motions for Harry and Ron to add the hairs to their cups as well. Harry dropped Goyle's hair into his cup and with a hiss and much frothing the potion turned a lovely khaki booger color. Crabbe's hair in Ron's cup turned a dark murky brown. I'm not sure which one of the three that I would have wanted to sample at that point.

Each glass looked more horrifying than the last. "Hang on," says Harry as Ron and Hermione reach for their glasses. "We'd better not all drink them in here. . . . Once we turn into Crabbe and Goyle we won't fit. And Millicent Bulstrode's no pixie."

"Good thinking," grouses Ron, unlocking the door. "We'll take separate stalls." I watch nervously as my friends step into separate stalls and lock them, putting them out of view.

"Well this ought to be good." Myrtle says appearing next to me, and I jump slightly. Even standing this close to her makes me shiver.

"Shut up." I say softly. My friends count off, and I wait anxiously switching my weight from foot to foot. What if the potion isn't brewed correctly? Something horrible could have happened to them. Dear Merlin, what if they're stuck looking like Slytherins for the rest of their lives? Not only would they be hideous they'd get into so much trouble!

The ripping of clothes comes from behind the stalls, and I can hear the shattering of glass from the dropped cups. "Are you guys all right?" I call out taking a step closer to the stalls. It took a minute but finally I hear groans come from two of the stalls.

"Yeah just peachy." Came the deep grunt of Crabbe's grunt from Ron's stall.

"We're fine Jamie." Goyle rasps stepping out of the stall where my friend Harry used to be. I blinked and reminded myself that the tall bulky Slytherin standing in front of me is actually my short bespectacled best friend. Crabbe steps out of the stall next to Harry. I can't believe that that's Ron.

"Merlin's saggy pants… you two look atrocious." I shudder. Crabbe grins at me and I fight back a flinch reminding myself that it's only Ron and not one of my lifetime enemies. Harry and Ron walk over to the mirrors and start poking and prodding themselves to take in their new appearances.

"This is unbelievable… someone pinch me, I've turned into Crabbe its my nightmare come alive." Ron murmurs. Not having the strength to resist an opportunity like that, I sidle up next to my friend and give him a good hard pinch on the arm. Ron emits a rather high-pitched yelp, and whacks me in the arm.

It feels like I'm hit by a bag of bricks and I grunt in pain. "Blimey I'm sorry Jamie… I'm not used to having arms the size of small children." Crabbe, no Ron stammers. I grit my teeth, and give him a closed lip smile in return.

"Enough of that you two. We need to get going. We still need to find out where the Slytherin common room is." Harry hisses at the two of us. I see out of the corner of my eye that Myrtle is watching the three of us with a wry grin on her face. Ron and I give Harry incredulous looks.

"I don't think that I've ever seen Goyle think before… its scary." I tell him and Ron shakes his head in agreement. Harry goes over to Hermione's stall and bangs on it.

"C'mon Hermione we need to get going!" Harry calls out and it's weird hearing Goyle's voice instead of him. A high-pitched voice answers him.

"I — I don't think I'm going to come after all. You go on without me." Hermione replies.

"Hermione, we know Millicent Bulstrode's ugly, no one's going to know it's you —" Ron interjects. I elbow him even though I pretty much agree with him.

"No — really — I don't think I'll come. You two hurry up, you're wasting time —" The rest of us look at each other bewildered.

"That looks more like Goyle," Ron snickers. "That's how he looks every time a teacher asks him a question." I chuckle as well, and give him a subtle high five.

"Hermione, are you okay?" says Harry through the door.

"Fine — I'm fine — go on —" I don't know what's going on with her. Maybe she's too afraid to come out looking like someone else. I don't think that anything bad happened to her because Harry and Ron are okay despite looking like two of our mortal enemies. Harry glanced down at his watch and let out a great sigh.

"Fine, come on Ron we have to go. Look after her Jamie. We'll hopefully be back before the hour is up." Harry tells me grabbing Ron by the arm and the two of them disappear out of the bathroom door. I shake my head at the two of them. I'm not sure that this is going to end well. I have a bad feeling about all this.

I go over to Hermione's stall and lean against the door. "Mione come on, I know that Millicent isn't the nicest of girls but appearance isn't everything. You're still the same smart Hermione underneath all of it." I tell her closing my eyes, rubbing at my temples in an attempt to stop the headache that's growing behind my eyes.

"Jamie please just leave me alone…" Hermione's teary voice comes out from behind the door. I sigh again, and push away from the stall. I go over to the circle of sinks in the center of the lavatory, and lean against them. I can barely see my reflection through the spotted mirror.

"I'm surprised that you're not out there with your friends." Myrtle's nasal voice comes from beside me. I look up from the mirror and focus my attention on the ghost. Okay now I'm almost positive that there's something going on with this ghost. She's not like this to any of the others. She actually approaches me and wants to talk.

"Okay what's going on here Myrtle. Why are you talking to me? You mentioned something the other day about doing a favor for a friend." I tell her sharply. Myrtle's eyes widen for a second then, a small grin slips onto her face. I'm shocked into silence for I'm not sure if I've seen the ghost smile before.

"Oh I can definitely see the family resemblance now. Gwen never took any flack from anyone." Myrtle says softly. I cock my head to the side, there's something familiar about that name. Why is that? "I wasn't sure at first since you didn't look to much like her, but I guess that things change over time."

"What do you mean?" I ask. Myrtle rolls her eyes at me.

"Are you seriously that daft. I was friends with Gwendolyn Sommers. Your grandmother." The ghost says in a patronizing voice. I feel my mouth drop open in shock.

"You knew my grandmother?" I ask softly.

"Of course. Why do you think that I would even bother with you if I wasn't? She was the only person in this school who was remarkably nice to me. Not sure why now that I look back at it. She was very popular, and she purposefully took the time to speak with me. That's why when I died she still visited me." The ghost explains.

This is something that I never knew. I was far too young to understand anything about my family when my parents died. "How…" I ask.

"Once she became a seventh year she came to me one day when I was minding my business in the toilets. She was upset with me for how I was treating the girls who had been mean to me when I was alive. I told her that I wasn't going to change, and that she'd understand once she was wronged and then dead."

"Even though Gwen couldn't get through to me, she still asked one last thing of me since we were soon never going to be able to see each other anymore. She asked me to keep an eye on her descendants when they went through Hogwarts. She said that she had a terrible feeling that one of them would be in danger when they were of school age." Myrtle explains a far away look coming into her eyes.

"She was my only friend… I told her that I would. It was the least that I could do after everything thing that she had done for me. As to why I'm talking to you… well I'm pretty sure Jamie Pendragon that you're the descendant that Gwen was talking about. You've already almost died once in the year that you've been here. Not to mention that you're friends with Harry Potter." She states.

I can't believe that my grandmother knew that something like this was going to happen so long ago. I also can't believe that she trusted such a morose ghost like Myrtle. "I can't believe this." I mumble. Myrtle shrugs her shoulders.

"I don't know why she wanted me to do this either. Its not like I can do much in this form, but I'm not going to break my promise to Gwen. She cared about you even though she never got the chance to meet you. There were a lot of hardships and disappointments in her family and life, but you were something that she was proud of." Myrtle tells me.

"Wait… what about my family…" I start but I'm caught off guard by the banging of the bathroom door. I'm disgruntled but relieved to see my friends returned to their normal state and appearances. Unfortunately though, Myrtle has flown back over to the toilets, where she's not snickering at something that she sees in one of the stalls.

"Jamie! Hermione! It's not him. Malfoy isn't the heir of Slytherin. He's a rat bastard that want's to help him, but unfortunately he's not the dark prince himself." Ron announces attempting to hold up his too large pants. I grin slightly to myself at having been right but my mind is too crowded with the information that I've just been given.

Harry goes over to Hermione's stall. "Hermione! Have you not come out of the stall at all?" Harry inquires. I shake my head coming over to stand beside him.

"Nope she hasn't set foot out and she's in a right foul mood as well." I tell him crossing my arms over my chest. Moaning Myrtle floats above us cackling madly in laughter now. I'm not sure if we've ever seen her this happy before. Not even the memory of Gwen can make her smile this much.

"Ooooooh, wait till you see," she said. "It's awful —" She shrieks. We hear the lock slide back and Hermione emerges, sobbing, her robes pulled up over her head.

"What's up?" says Ron uncertainly. "Have you still got Millicent's nose or something?" Hermione lets her robes fall and Ron backs into the sink. Merlin's beard! Her face is covered in black fur. Her eyes have turned yellow and there are long, pointed ears poking through her hair.

"It was a c-cat hair!" she howls. "M-Millicent Bulstrode m-must have a cat! And the p-potion isn't supposed to be used for animal transformations!" I did not expect this to ever happen. Maybe a misplaced limb but never, my best friend turning into a feline!

"Uh-oh," says Ron.

"You'll be teased something dreadful," squeals Myrtle happily.

"It's okay, Hermione," says Harry quickly. "We'll take you up to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey never asks too many questions. . . ."

It takes a long time to persuade Hermione to leave the bathroom. Moaning Myrtle sent us on our way with a hearty guffaw. "Wait till everyone finds out you've got a tail!" I spin around and shoot the ghost a nasty glare.

"Shut up Myrtle!" I shout. With that we hurry out into the hall. Hermione is in hysterics and all I can think of is that my best friend has turned into a cat and that my grandmother that I never knew is looking out for me from the grave.